Woollymummy

I was wondering about the evolution of life with respect to massive hurricanes etc, and wondering if it was a selection pressure (if they were frequent enough) driving adaptations in body shape or possibly always caused catastrophic removal of populations.? Might there have been some species who were able to thrive in areas where winds were exceptionally high, that we might not have noticed in the fossil record? Or did life only emerge out of the oceans once the most massive cyclonic weather events had died back closer to what we see today? The ocean stays pretty constant, much safer that being up on land.

Errr.... I think he was referring to cholera epidemics etc, caused by diarrhoea ("loose stools") wiping out thousands of people, not referring to light breezes that might knock your stool (or chair) over causing problems.......

Interesting about pollen, many yellow flowers are flowering in my holiday-neglected allotment and garden, eg lettuce, rocket, ragwort (very guilty for having that) and lots of Compositae species (things that look like dandelions), Hawkbit, Hawk's-beard and also thistles. Runner beans are also flowering, but I am not sure how widespread they would be as an allergen unless you live near a veg plot.

My gazebo pole snapped about 12 days ago,we have been continually camping (in England) since then, on not one single day did we need cover from rain; glorious weather for festivals, cooking outside, swimming in the sea, setting up and packing away big canvas tents, sitting out late chatting with friends, playing all day on holiday. Absolutely amazing end to the summer, I am very grateful. One bizarre occurrence this weekend was my friends all sitting hiding in the shade of a fence draped in colourful cloths at a festival, absolutely no wind, boiling hot. A sudden wind whipped past out of nowhere, caught the cloths, flipped the fence into my pals, then ten seconds later - still air again, the only sign that something odd had occurred was a plastic carrier bag about 100 ft up in the air swirling around on its own. ....now then, one last day to dry all our holiday washing, pack the camping clobber back into the sheds and rescue my tomatoes before the chilly rain arrives.

Camping in Dunwich in Suffolk, couldn't see horizon for all the trees but long period of super bright lightning flashes around 4:30, thunder was faint and a long time after the flashes, over a minute maybe? Very warm south wind blowing all night, only a tiny bit of rain. Does anyone know if Oxfordshire got heavy rain?

Haha, I was lying in the sunshine reading about 15 mins ago, sweltering hot, wondering if I should find some shade, got up to move and saw the monster thunderstorm approaching fast, got all the washing in quick and heard lots of thunder but saw no flashes sadly. Loadsa rain, all pretty much gone past now I think. Nice one though!

I feel the same - summer was often baking hot, while autumn (back to school, shopping for new shoes) was often rainy. I am 43 so I am basing this on being at school in the 80s. Now I feel May and June and bits of July is more summery, followed by an autumny end of summer, then another warm and dry spell in September. I am now confidently planting things in July knowing we have, more than likely a second shot at summer for fast growth and harvesting before proper autumn kicks in.

Yesterday, lots of these tiny boring looking straight line clouds as the heat dissipated in the afternoon, then at sunset an amazing pink sky and even a pink rainbow as the edge of the stormy weather came over us (lightning in the distance) then v light rain, followed by totally silent odd flashes on the horizon as somewhere near London was getting the proper storm, and absolutely no thunder, I stayed awake for hours hoping for a storm but slept through the torrential rain that turned out to be the only excitement near Oxford.

I hope you find a nice place to live Carinthian, it is not nice to feel like you in the wrong place. Enjoy the sunny days :-)

Crazy looking cloud, please help! my friend sent me this cloud picture, she thinks I am an expert, please can anyone help her explain this appearance, seen from Wootton looking north towards Cumnor and Farmoor, Oxfordshire.

Yesterday just before sunset, beautiful virga

too much sweat

Stop assuming you know what other people perceive Cheese: how can you say that someone else's perception of heat is *not* affected by humidity?! What a strange statement. Read this and go back to sleep. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042662/

Is this a lenticular cloud? There were lots of them over Oxfordshire today, and we have no mountains.

re: Hot Days: Top tip is to stick white paper (we use waste photocopied A4) on your windows to reflect lots of the light away but keep room bright, and make sure ventilation is maximum in the night time and minimum during the heat of the day, as more hot air just comes in and is hard to get rid of. Looking forward to some hot days eventually.....

We tapped a birch tree at the weekend, got loads of delicious sap and made some syrup, but the flow is now really slowing down and we think it may be about to be time for bud break, so here come the fuzzy greenness in the woods again, great spring feeling!

Our school pond has been very active since weekend before last, many classes of kids got to see the whole live action, some fivesomes etc with rather rather grim examples of keen males still trying to mate with one dead and eviscerated female (!) but on the whole many many happy jolly pairs or frogs, males showing off their white throats, croaking all day long, and now huge amounts of frogspawn of varying stages of development. The nature area also now seems to have a mating pair of blackbirds, so we are hoping they have made a nest somewhere nearby!

I know Doris isn't here yet but I just put the bins out and I am enjoying the wild wind outside, makes a change from the last few months.

Even the weather forecast on the radio makes no sense, I am sure they said there would be sunny spells this afternoon and all that's happened is the grey mist has gone and we have now proper grey rain.

A little bit UK love for Europe on 27th Feb, forecast on Valentine's Day:

Wishing for snow on a lovely spring-like day as we have here today seems perverse and silly. Drains are unblocked, two loads of washing out in the windy sunshine, mouse evidence swept out of shed, pantry tidy, kids fed, off into town for some shopping and then tunes in the pub later. Spring! I don't care if that was the last of winter or if we have a bit more to come, it is lovely to be having a warm breezy day at last.

I go to bed dreaming of the nice igloo, and hope we don't end up getting the nasty igloo or even worse, a big pile of rain